On average there are over 174 building fires every day. Yet despite this staggering number, fire precaution does not appear to be top of mind for those specifying building materials. Fire Doors Plus are here to help our clients to help keep you on the right side of the law.

Did you walk past a fire door today? Was everything ok? Would you know how to spot a dodgy fire door? When it comes to fire safety guidance and legislation, there is much available to help installers and specifiers, however general awareness seems to be lacking. The Chief Fire Offices Association (CFOA) has released data on fires, deaths and injuries for UK Business Safety Week September 2015 and over the last 10 years there has been 1,846 fires in hotels, boarding houses, hostels, mixed use premises etc that have resulted in 172 casualties and 4 fatalities.

There are about 3 million new fire doors bought and installed every year in the UK. Fire doors are often the first line of defence in a fire – in essence it is an engineered safety device and as such, they are a crucial part of the passive fire protection of every commercial, public and multiple occupancy building. Ultimately, they save lives and property and therefore demand the appropriate consideration when specifying for any application.

Even though a fire door’s correct specification, maintenance and management can be the difference between life and death for building occupants, they still remain a significant area of neglect – often the first thing to be downgraded on a specification and mismanaged throughout their service life, propped open, damaged and badly maintained and ignored through lack of budget, simply seen as not important.

Fire safety within the home is an extremely important issue, especially in mixed use premises and where unrelated occupiers, who live independently from one another, share common areas of the same building. More than three quarters (80%) of all fire-related fatalities occurred in dwelling fires (including private homes, social and affordable housing).